Tahsis Community Garden Society: Slugfest 2012

Monday, July 23, 2012

Slugfest 2012

Tahsis Days has been alot of fun this year, and one of the highlights for many people has been the SLUGFEST event at the Tahsis Community Garden. Many people worked very hard to make the garden's involvement in Tahsis Days a success, Catherine, Traci, Kim, Debbie and her daughters, Tena, Alisa, Roger, Sarah, Silvie, the younger kids, just to name some of them, and many of these same gardeners worked so hard on our Tahsis Community Garden Float for the parade, as well. We did come in 1st place for our beautiful float! Our FLOWER POWER themed float was gorgeous, and the kids who rode the float with Traci had a blast throwing out daisies and giving away homemade beaded necklaces, with the Jimi Hendrix blaring out the stereo.

Slugfest attracted children of all ages to our garden and the scavenger hunt organized by catherine was very challenging and fun. kids were running around finding "something fuzzy/something for the compost bin/something to make tea out of/something smooth, etc etc etc. One of the challenges was to try a piece of durian melon, an unusual delicacy to be enjoyed by adventurous people who are not deterred by odd smells and unusual textures. The general consensus was that it was good, very sweet, like a cross between pumpkin, custard and banana. The kids, who have had their horizons broadened and their palettes educated all school year by Silvie and her wonderful Farm to School program, rarely hesitated to try something new.

Local families and visitors to the garden this weekend commented on the beauty and success of our space. It truly is a wonderful place, and all the people involved in our garden are part of this positive, healthy, remarkable growing spot of community spirit.

And then there's the slugs, the bags and bags of slugs.... i didn't do a final count, but i estimate we collected up about two hundred slugs yesterday afternoon. After the festivities, we brought the bucket over to Juanita's duck pens and without describing the brutally swift scene of carnage that followed, i can say that the 6 ducks greatly appreciated the feast.